Machine



(No Model.) 2 sheets-sheen 1.

J. WBNSTROM. HAT ROUNDING MACHINE. No. 298,643.

Patented May 13, 1884 kl N I @Ibi (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

J. .WENSTRONL HAT ROUNDING MACHINE.

No. 298,848, Patented May 18', 1884.

N. PEYERS. Pham-Liuwgmphr. Washington, nu

turion raras ritieni..

JOHN VENSTROM, OF BROOKLYN, NFV YORK.

HAT-ROUNDiNG MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 298,643, dated May 13, 188%.

Application filed December i9, 1882.

To all whom, it may al1/werft.-

Be it known that I, JOHN VnNs'rRoM, a citizen of Sweden, and a resident of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in IIat-Rounding Machines, of which the following is a specification. Y

My invention relates to rounding machines,77 as they are generally called, or such as are used for trimming` off the brims of hats to give them the requisite size and shape of outline corresponding with the different sizes and styles of hats previous to the operation of curling the brim..

Thebrim-trimming machine heretofore most generally used is known as the Oron Rounding-lVIachine.77 In this a vertical rim or band 'conforming to the inner circumference of the hat body, and made in sections secured to radial slides, is expanded by an outward movement of said slides, and thus tightened against the inner circumference of the hat, to hold the` latter fast while its brim is being trimmed. rIhe general form of the hat-base being somewhat similar to an ellipse, and the slides being moved in radii forty-five degrees apart by cranks situated forty-five degrees apart in a circle-periphery, those slides only which lie in the two axes ofthe ellipse maintain during th e expansive movement the uniformity of said elliptic figure, while those that lie between them obliquely, and therefore should have a little more movement to maintain said uniformity, get behind, thereby distorting the hat (in some such shape as illustrated by the dotted outline in Fig. 3 of the drawings) while the brim is being trimmed and giving the latter an irregular outline of unfit shape. This is also one reason why it is impracticable (even if its construction were otherwise adapted for it) to make the range of expansion of the tightening-band sufficient for holding hats of all sizes, said limited range being another defect in the said machines. It is also liable to break the sides of round or slightly-tapering hats by too great width or height of the expansionband.

The object of my present improvement is to obviate the said defects.

In the accompanying two sheets of drawings, Figure l represents a sectional elevation (No model.)

of a Crox machine provided with my improvements, the expansion device being sectioned in the line .fr @c of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the expansion device in position as when contracted and seen from the line 1v w of Fig. l. Fig. 8 is a similar view of the same in position as when expanded, and seen from the line n e of Fig. l. Fig. 4 is a cross-section of the upper part of the machine, taken in the line e e of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a detail cross-section (on the line y y of Fig. 2) of the slides7 guide-plate and one of the slides therein. Fig. 6 is a full-size face View of the slotted guide-plate in which the slides move,illus trating the mode of pivoting the links and the disparity in the effect thereof between the old construction and the present improvement.

A is the standard or frame of the machine. a is the top and c the foot thereof. B is the upright shaft moving centrally in said stand ard, and provided with a square upper end, b, and connected at its lower end by means of an angular arm, b', to a handle, 0 by which handle the shaft B may be turned, and on which handle is pivoted, at c, a pawl engaging with a circular toothed rack upon the upper surface of the foot a', to retain the handle and shaft in positionat any desired point of the said turning motion.

Upon a rubber or leather packing, c, on the top a is placed the form or pattern-plate I), which regulates the shape of the outline of the brim, of which there are several sizes, eX- changeable to suit various sizes of hats. These are held in position by studs d, secured to the frame-top a, which studs pass through corresponding holes, d, in the plate D and also through similar holes in the ring E, the slideplate F, and cover G, successively, which to gether inclose and form the frame of the expansion device, and are clamped together by the nuts e upon the upper end of the studs d, as seen in Fig. 4.. The brim is trimmed by the knife g in the gaged pawl 7L of the ordinary trimming-handle, H,which latter is provided with a roller, h, working against the outer edge of the pattern-plate D, and is arranged to turn upon the standard A, the roller 7i being kept in Contact with the plate D, notwithstanding the oval form of the latter, by the spring 7L, in the usual manner, as seen in Fig. l..

IOO

vThe plate F conforms to the shape of the human head-that is, it is oval, but not an ellipse, having at the backa form nearly approaching that of a circle, like the back of the head, and at the front a shape more approaching that of an ellipse, like the front of the head, as shown in Fig. 6.

In the plate F are slots ff, radiating from the center of the figure, the slots f being arranged in the ends of the transversal and conjugate axes, and the slots f obliquely between the slots f, in suitable position to guide the slides I', so-that they, when moving outward, will push the band J (which is made in four sections, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3) to press on the inner circumference of the hat, for keeping it in correctshape, by using as few band-slides as possible, eight being the smallest number that can be used. rIhe shap'e of the slides that iit 'the guide-slots is shown in cross-section in Fig. 5.

In the round central hole through the plate F is tted to turn -a circular disk, to which is riveted above and below the plate F two circular disks, K, sufficiently larger than the diameter of the hole to overlap the edge of the plate F, and thus be kept in position when revolving. The plate K forms the cranks for moving the slides by means of the links L, which are pivoted with their inner ends to the said plate and their outer ends to slides,- as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The links L are y curved at their inner ends, in order to allow a greater range for their movement without interfering with each other when the band J is contracted to the minimum size, as will be understood with reference to Fig. 2.

In the center of the crank-disk K is a square hole, k, by which it fits tightly upon the square b of the shaft B, so that by turning the handle C alsothe shaft B and the crank-disk will be revolved to move the slides outward and inward, as the case may be, thereby more or less expanding the band J to nt hats of different sizes by `the moving of the links L as aforesaid. The throw obtained of the slides is sufficiently large to adapt the expansion of the band to include all the ordinary sizes of hats.

As heretofore made, the pivots in the crankdisk K were all located in the peripheral line of the same circle, and were placed equidistant from each other, or at exactly forty-five degrees of the circle apart from each other. By said construction the slides I, working in the slots f in the two axes of the figure,will expand the band always proportionally to maintain the uniformity, but the slides I', working in the oblique slots f', will not move in correct proportion, and they thus press the hat out of shape, sometimes expanding it too much and sometimes too little, (as with reference to Fig. 6 will more fully appear.)

The outlineof the hat-brim being effected very perceptibly bythe least difference in the throw of the oblique slides relative to the rect-` angular slides, it has ybeen necessary in large factories to keep two or three men working witha small purposely-made plane to shave off into uniform shape the irregularities of the cover, thus entailing much expense and waste of labor. The motion of the slides I being at right angles to the tangent of the figure,while the motion of the slides I is oblique to the tangent, it is evident that in order to obtain absolute uniformity of the curve during expansion of the band the latter slides, I', must have athrow just as much longer than the throw of the slides I as what is due to the Obliquity ofthe throw, or as much longer as the linem-n is longer than the line n-o. The locations of the link-pivots for the oblique slides on the crank-disk K at forty-ve degrees apart from the link-pivots u of the .axial slides I, and in the circleline Q, according to the old construction, are indicated in Fig. 6 by the number 45, and th'e corresponding terminal points of the throw of the outer ends of the slidelinks (when the disk K has moved in the direction and through the angle indicated by the arrow) are also designated by the same number. rIhe proper locations of the linkpivots for the slides I on the crank-disk K, and which accord with my improved construction, are designated by the letter r, and the corresponding terminal points of the throw are designated by the letters w and o for the inner and outer termini, respectively. A comparison will show that at T and V, for the upper right and lower left oblique'slides, respectively, the termini marked 45 are behind the proper termini, and at U and W they are ahead of the same. Moreover, the length and speed of the throw indicated by the termini 45 are different and irregular. Tb remedy this I have discovered by repeated experiments that the link-pivots1I must be located exactly as many degrees behind or to the left of (the disk K being turned to the right) the next forward link-pivots, u, as the center line of the oblique slide I, connected to the pivot r, is behind the next forward axial slide, I, or, in other words, so that if the disk K be turned in such position that the line p-q covers the line p-R, the angles M N O P'marked on the disk K will Aexactly cover the angles lVI N OCI, respectively. If, then, the pivots r be placed in the circle-line Q, or at the same radial distance from the center p as that at which the pivot u is located, the corresponding throw, w-s, will be exactly like the throw t-t of the axial slides I. To move uniformly as much faster (and consequently farther) than the slides I as the oblique line a-m is longer than the vertical line 1z--o,'I place the pivots r a slight corresponding distance outside of the circle Q, the radii (or cranks) which regulate the front oblique slides being thus a little longer than those which regulate the oblique slides at the back of the head. The disk K is moved only about one-sixth of a turn, as shown in Fig.4 6, or so that the square hole 7c assumes the dotted position marked c, and the pivots ar of the front slide and of the one next IIO following,` assume, respectively, the positions marked u and i.

The full lines L and dotted lines L indicate the respective positions of the links at the termini of the throw.

Having thus described my improvement, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentl. In an expansion device of a hat-rounding machine comprising` a stationary plate having radial slides operated by a central crank-disk, the combination, with the axial slides I,having their links L pivoted at u equidistant apart, in the saine circle-line, Q, on the said crankdisk, ofthe oblique slides I', having` their links L pivoted at r to the said crankdisk, at the same angular distances, M N O P, from the forward pivots, u, respectively, as the angles M N O P', which are formed by the center line of each` respective oblique slide I and that of the next preceding axial slide I, substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore set forth.

2. In an expansion device of a hat-rounding machine comprising a stationary plate having radial slides operated by a central crank- 25 disk, the combination, with the axial slides I, having their links L pivoted at u equidistant-apart, in the same circle-line Q, on the said crank-disk, of the oblique slides I, having their links L pivoted at r to the said crank disk, atthe same angular distances, M N O P, from the forward pivots, u, respectively, as the angles M N 0 P, which are formed by the center line of each respective oblique slide I and that of the next preceding axial slide I, the latter pivots or crank-pins r being located outside of the circle Q, to increase the throw of the oblique slides I', substantially as and for the purpose hereinbei'ore set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my naine, in presence of two witnesses, this 14th day-of Deceniber, 1882.

JOHN VENSTROM.

i Vitnesses:

A. W. ALMQvIs'r, J. `OGDEN SMITH. 

